Monday, November 14, 2016

November 14, 2016
The number of religiously non-affiliated people, according to the
Pew Research Center, is rising. In 2007 they comprised 16 percent of Americans.
In 2015 their percentage rose to 23 percent. Meanwhile, the number of
Christians fell from 78 to 71 percent.

I do not mourn this, although I regularly attend Mass with
Catholic religious sisters. Not all these nuns are so very different from
nones. Both groups have spiritual values that transcend conventional bounds,
but nuns express their spirituality in religious terms while nones express
spirituality without religion.

At the same time that I feel at home with nuns, I identify with nones’
getting more inspiration from nature than from God-talk. Like nones, I have
lost respect for institutional religion. My biggest criticism of Christianity is
its God-images turned into gods by patriarchal language imposed on churches by
the Vatican.

I hold it responsible for Pope Francis' lack of vision regarding women. I can’t say it better than I did in the MinneapolisStarTribune yesterday: “Avoid gendered God-talk”

Thank you to readers who sent me kudos for this.

December 5, 2016 Christian Nones?

I was wrong. Or more accurately stated, I gave out-of-date information in stating that 23% of Americans are nones. In 2016, 25% of all Americans are nones. This is the latest finding of the Pew Research Center. Think of it. The number of Americans who identify with no religion keeps rapidly rising.

The largest number of nones describe themselves as atheists and agnostics. They say they “don’t believe.” Examining the Pew Center’s data on nonesmore closely, I see they don’t affiliate with any religion because religions teach myths that science debunks. The atheists and agnostics I know reject religion for the same reason. And what is their devotion to truth but a mark of integrity? And what is integrity but a spiritual principle?

Nones, atheists, and agnostics—whatever they’re called—reject religion because it violates their spiritual principles, although they don’t put it that way. The next largest group of nones “dislike organized religion” because it abuses power and causes conflict, another spiritual principle shared with my atheist/agnostic acquaintances.

A few nones have the perspicacity to claim being spiritual but not religious. I think this characterizes most nones, atheists, and agnostics, whether or not they know it. The writings of atheists Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins disclose the inner integrity driving them.

I go to church, nones do not, but I feel closer to nones than to most churchgoers. My own life mirrors the rise of the none phenomenon. I left my church after college and tried to be an atheist because I did not believe the Father/Son myth. Reading Teilhard de Chardin, Carl Jung, and feminist theologians told me I didn’t fit in atheism. Then Al-Anon gave me the gift of my Higher Power, a non-denominational, compatible-with-science way of appealing for spiritual help and communicating with power vastly greater than human.

When my mantra “God is not three guys in the sky” burbled up in me at the School of Theology in the 1980s, I felt alone and afraid. Surrounded by religious people earnestly preparing for church work, I did not dare say it, until I did. “God is not three guys in the sky,” I said in classes and in halls. No shocked looks. No reprimands. People around me seemed to understand. This awareness keeps growing, as the none phenomenon evinces.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Soon after Pope Francis was elected and the refreshing changes in
his leadership style were being celebrated, I wrote that he doesn’t get the issue of women. That became abundantly clear
this last week when he again closed
the door on women’s ordination. Yes, he’s a wonderful man. Yes, he’s humble and
courageous in his determination to right wrongs, even to a limited extent on
the treatment of women. But he just
doesn’t get it. He does not understand patriarchy; he does not understand its
impact on human thought, attitudes, and expectations.

Francis is not uninformed, just unenlightened. He has not
accomplished the shift in consciousness that is required to accept women in
roles previously delegated exclusively to men. Christian God-talk keeps Francis
and other good people from realizing what patriarchy has done. He needs a
strong dose of Mary Daly (“If God is male, male is God”) and Rosemary Radford
Ruether, whose book Sexism and God-talk
motivate my writings and presentations on sexist God-talk.

I and other feminists have been railing against the drumbeat of HeHimHis
for years, without effect on Christianity. But outside of our religion there is
movement. Atheists scoff at the Christian gods called Father and Son, but they are
not the most effective. I believe Nones are the ones who will put the final nail in the coffin of patriarchy because they do not waste energy proving how
foolish literal religious beliefs are. They don’t discredit themselves by
scoffing at spiritual reality. Nones neatly sidestep religion.

I’ll say more about Nones next time. In the meantime, read my post
“Francis on women’s authority.”The
man who let me tell about his shift in consciousness has since died.

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In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet says, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” This is a two-edged challenge. It invites believers to rethink their dogmas, and it challenges people without faith to rethink their certainty that everything religious is bunk.